The nominees for the 16th Annual Helpmann Awards were announced this week and one production has already surged ahead – Matilda. The musical has garnered a staggering 13 nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The Roald Dahl adaptation earned nods in each of the Musical specific categories as well as getting recognition in the broader Industry Awards categories too.
Matilda is not the only production this year with multiple nominations. Queensland Theatre Company’s Ladies in Black picked up a total of 6 nominations, including Best New Australian Work, Best Original Score and Best Musical.
Melbourne Theatre Company’s staging of North by Northwest also attracted 6 nominations, including Best Play. The Australian Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty scored 3 nominations, all in the Industry Awards categories.
Whilst, Barking Gecko Theatre Company’s production Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories picked up 2 nominations, including Best New Australian Work and Best Presentation for Children.
The Helpmann Awards are Australia’s premier celebration of the vibrant and vivacious live performance industry that operates in this country, and recognises and rewards achievement and excellence across 41 categories, taking in all the fields of live performance, from contemporary music and theatre, to comedy, opera and children’s theatre productions.
This year the Helpmann’s have featured a handful of additional awards, with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival getting recognised for their ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Comedy in Australia”. Chief Executive of Live Performance Australia, Evelyn Richardson said the Helpmann Awards Industry Panel and the Awards Administration Committee both “felt strongly that the festival’s sustained development of comedian’s and comedy programmes around the country over three decades was worthy of recognition”
Further, Michael Lynch CBE AM will be this year’s recipient of the Sue Nattrass Award, an award that recognises and honours the exceptional service to the Australian live performance industry.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at a ceremony on Monday 25th July.
The ceremony will take place at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, and will broadcast live on Foxtel Arts and webcast for free via the Foxtel Arts website. The general public are also welcome to attend the awards, with tickets available from HERE.
The Awards will feature performances from the casts of Matilda the Musical, The Sound of Music, Ladies in Black and Singin’ in the Rain. There will also be individual performances from Marina Prior & Mark Vincent and Sarah Blasko.
For a full list of this years Helpmann Awards nominees visit HERE
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